I am a Burmese exile taking a near-permanent refuge in New York and Sydney. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And posting the articles I like from selected sites. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Mysterious Sea-floor “Ping” From Canadian Arctic

Mysterious 'ping' sound from sea floor
baffles Igloolik. Sometimes called a beep, a ping, or a hum, the sound is
blamed for scaring away animals. The mysterious sound has been noted by hunters
in the area of Hecla and Fury Strait, a rich hunting ground that they say was
empty this year.

Hunters in a remote community in Nunavut are concerned about a
mysterious sound that appears to be coming from the sea floor. The "pinging"
sound, sometimes also described as a "hum" or "beep," has
been heard in Fury and Hecla Strait — roughly 120 kilometres northwest of the
hamlet of Igloolik — throughout the summer.

Paul Quassa, a member of the
legislative assembly, says whatever the cause, it's scaring the animals away. "That's
one of the major hunting areas in the summer and winter because it's a
polynya," an area of open water surrounded by ice that's abundant with sea
mammals, he said. "And this time around, this summer, there were hardly
any. And this became a suspicious thing."

The noise is "emanating from the
sea floor," according to remarks Quassa made last month in the Nunavut
legislature. The sound appears to come from the sea floor in Hecla and Fury Strait.
Northeast of Igloolik is Steensby Inlet, where Quassa says Baffinland, owner of
the Mary River mine, has been doing sonar surveys. The company says it has no
equipment in the water.

Another area MLA, George Qulaut, said
he visited the site after hearing the reports. Though he wasn't able to hear
the sound — he says years of hunting have left him nearly deaf, especially to
high-pitched sounds — he did notice the lack of wildlife.

"That passage is a migratory route
for bowhead whales, and also bearded seals and ringed seals. There would be so
many in that particular area," he told CBC News, recalling his own days of
hunting there. "This summer there was none."

Boaters aboard a private yacht passing
through the area also say they heard the mysterious sound, and described it
during an appearance on a community radio show upon their arrival in Igloolik.
A number of people called in to say they'd also heard it. The noise can
apparently be heard through the hulls of boats. CBC News has not heard the
noise and did not speak to anyone who claims to have heard it.

Theories abound

Nobody seems to know where the sound
comes from, but theories — from environmental activists to mining — abound. One
theory blames Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation. The company has previously
conducted sonar surveys of nearby Steensby Inlet in conjunction with its Mary
River mine southwest of Pond Inlet. But the company told CBC News it is not
conducting any surveys in the area, and has no equipment in the water.

Quassa says no territorial permits have
been issued for work — such as construction, blasting or hydrography — in the
area that could explain the noise. He also says some of his constituents
suspect the sound is being generated on purpose by Greenpeace to scare wildlife
away from the rich hunting ground. The organization has a tense past with Inuit
stemming from its opposition to the seal hunt in the 1970s and 1980s.

George Qulaut, the MLA for Amittuq and
Speaker of the Nunavut Legislative Assembly, travelled to the hunting grounds
where hunters said the sound was scaring wildlife away. He saw 'only seabirds.
Not a single seal.'

"We've heard in the past of groups like Greenpeace putting in some
kinds of sonars in the seabed to get the sea mammals out of the way so Inuit
won't be able to hunt them," Quassa said. These rumours, though
persistent, have never been substantiated. "Nobody has ever seen any type
of ship or anything going through that area and putting something down,"
Quassa said.

Greenpeace denies the assertion. "Not
only would we not do anything to harm marine life, but we very much respect the
right of Inuit to hunt and would definitely not want to impact that in any
way," Farrah Khan, a spokeswoman for the organization, said from Toronto.

Military Is Investigating

The military is also aware of the noise,
and says it is looking into it. Internal correspondence between sources in the
Department of National Defence, obtained by CBC News, suggest submarines were
not immediately ruled out, but were also not considered a likely cause.

A spokesperson told CBC News the armed forces are investigating. "The
Department of National Defence has been informed of the strange noises
emanating in the Fury and Hecla Strait area, and the Canadian Armed Forces are
taking the appropriate steps to actively investigate the situation," a
spokesperson wrote in a statement. Igloolik is about 70 kilometres north of
Hall Beach, an active military site that was once part of the now-defunct DEW
line of radar stations.

In the meantime, Qulaut is worried
about the sound's impact on game animals that have been feeding in the area for
centuries. For now, the community has no answers about the sound, its origins,
or what it might be doing to the animals. "As of today, we're still
working on it," he said. "We
don't have a single clue."

Hunters in a remote community in the
Canadian Arctic are concerned about a beeping sound that’s scaring animals away
from a popular hunting area. The Canadian armed forces have sent a crew to
investigate reports of a mysterious “pinging” sound that seemed to be coming
from the sea floor.

Hunters in a remote community in the
Canadian Arctic have become concerned about a pinging or beeping sound they say
they’ve been hearing in the Fury and Hecla Strait, a channel of water that’s
120km (75 miles) north-west of the Inuit hamlet Igloolik.

Paul Quassa, a local politician, told
CBC that the sound seems to be coming from the sea floor, and is scaring
animals away from a popular hunting area of open water surrounded by ice that
is usually abundant with sea mammals. “And this time around, this summer, there
were hardly any. And this became a suspicious thing,” he said.

Several reports were passed to the
military, which sent a CP-140 Aurora patrol aircraft to investigate on Tuesday
under the mandate of Operation Limpid, a domestic surveillance programme
designed to “detect, deter, prevent, pre-empt and defeat threats aimed at
Canada or Canadian interests”.

In a statement, Department of National
Defence spokeswoman Ashley Lemire said: “The Canadian armed forces are aware of
allegations of unusual sounds emanating from the seabed in the Fury and Hecla
Strait in Nunavut. The air crew performed various multi-sensor searches in the
area, including an acoustic search for 1.5 hours, without detecting any
acoustic anomalies.

The crew did not detect any surface or
subsurface contacts. “The crew did observe two pods of whales and six walruses
in the area of interest. “At this time the Department of National Defence does
not intend to do any further investigations.”

That hasn’t stopped people from
theorising about the source of the sounds, which have been variously attributed
to the sonar surveys of local mining operations or to Greenpeace activists.

Sonar is used by mining companies to
make detailed maps of the sea floor in their search for offshore oil and gas.
The sonar is known to disturb marine mammals such as whales and dolphins. However,
the Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation, which has conducted sonar surveys
nearby, told CBC it has no equipment in the water at this time.

Others believe that Greenpeace is creating the sound on purpose to scare
wildlife away from Inuit hunters – an allegation Greenpeace denies.

Mysterious sounds have a tendency to
send people’s imaginations into overdrive. Earlier this year a high-pitched
flute-like noise kept people in Portland, Oregon, awake. The steady whistling
noise had also been heard by residents several decades previously.

Meanwhile in Ontario, a low rumbling
sound known as the “Windsor Hum” has confounded residents for six years, with
some describing it as like thunder or a subwoofer that can rattle windows.

The sound appears to come from an
island surrounded by fences that’s home to a steel plant. The secrecy
surrounding the plant has led to wild and unfounded speculation that the sound
comes from an alien aircraft or from the construction of an underground tunnel
by a billionaire.